Eli Oscar Wood

As I've been tagged by my sister, I'm spotlighting my Eli with 7 random facts about him.



1. Trevor's mother moved in with us when Eli was only a few months old, and he is her little friend. He loves her and she loves him.

2. Eli loves popcorn. When he was barely two, he aspirated a piece and got it lodged in his lung. We had to go to Primary Children's Hospital and have it surgically removed. You'd think I'd be more cautious about it after that, and I've tried, but he loves it so much he'll often ask for it for breakfast. I, being the good mommy that I am, give in most days and let him have it as long as he drinks some milk to wash it down. It's like having a bowl of cereal, right? The second picture was taken one such morning.

3. Eli speaks in full sentences and isn't afraid to pronounce anything, but like any two-year-old, has his own way of talking. Here are a few examples of his pronunciation:

Autumn: AH-m

Parker: DED-oh

Simon: BY-dine

Popcorn: PA-ohn

Shoes: DOO-don

4. Eli is, by far, my happiest and sweetest child (assuming, of course, that he's well-rested). He's always in a good mood, and even when he's tired he often gets punchy instead of ornery. When he can't have something he wants I'll tell him something like, "You can have it tomorrow." Most times his response is, "Otay."

5. Autumn and Eli look a lot alike. If she weren't wearing pink in most of her baby pictures, you might not be able to tell the difference between the two.

6. He hates getting his diaper changed and has no desire (at this point, but there's always hope for tomorrow) to try potty training. We're praying he doesn't follow in his two older brothers' footsteps and wait until 4 years old to be ready.

7. He loves "vroom-vrooms," "choo-choos," piggy-back rides, and coloring on my walls and furniture.

the dreaded plateau

Yes, it's true. I've hit it and it's no fun. I haven't lost any real weight since the beginning of the month. I started out the month at 138.4 and today I'm at 137.8, but I've been fluctuating a lot this whole time. So how does one break out of a plateau?

I've heard lots of different advice, like lowering your calories, raising your calories, changing up your workout routine, changing what you eat, etc. I haven't purposely tried any of those, but I'm afraid to raise my calories in fear of gaining weight, and I'm not sure I can lower my calorie intake--I barely have enough control as it is. So what I can reasonably do is change my workout routine. I really enjoy running and don't even mind getting up early to do it. I even look forward to it. I got a Billy Blanks kickboxing DVD and have done it once. Although it was great, I missed my treadmill. I do plan to start running outside this summer when my kids are out of school and the weather's warm, but I won't be able to do that until mid-May.

I guess I'll give Mr. Blanks another try tomorrow and see how I like it.

Anyone have any more advice? I'd love to hear anything you have to say! In the meantime, I'm going to do some internet research on the subject.

Previous weight: 138.4
Current weight: 137.8

Tentative pounds to go: 10.8

I've been living a lie

All my life I've believed I was 5'4" tall. I measured myself (or had someone measure me) in high school, in college and probably thereafter. Always 5'4".

Then yesterday when I went to see my sis Erin, who's visiting Utah and staying with Alisa, we compared heights. She swore she's 5'4", but I'm taller than her. I was sure she was just mistaken about her height, but I had my husband measure me when we got home that night and, lo and behold, I'm 5'5"! Unbelievable! So that gives me a BMI of 22.8. And all this time I've been living under false pretenses.

Come to think of it, I had a pair of really great pants in college that I loved, and after a while they turned into floods. I thought they had just shrunk after repeated washings (I probably wore the things every other day). But maybe, just maybe, I was growing...

Parker's First Pinewood Derby

The pinewood derby was last week and below is a picture of Parker's car. Both Parker and Trevor spent lots of time on it, and I probably don't have to tell you who did the most. Parker designed it, cut most of it out on the bandsaw and picked the color, and Trevor did the rest. He tried to get Parker to sand, but Parker would sand for a minute or two and give up. Not the most fun for an 8-year-old! Trevor's a perfectionist when it comes to these kinds of things, and he fretted over that thing like crazy. It made me crazy! When it was all said and done, Parker took second place. The kid who won first place is a 10-year-old, is the Cubmaster's son and, as we're told, won last year too. They must be doing something right. But all the boys had fun. For the refreshments, someone took the time to make Twinkies into little cars complete with gummi Lifesavers for wheels and gummy bears placed into a small cutout in the Twinkie "driver's seat." Very cute. Wish I had picture of those, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I was just trying not to eat them...

A quick update

Oh my lands, has life interfered with blogging! I've been wanting to post for days now and haven't found the time. So this is a late-night update. I'll write more tomorrow. And it's not that I have sooo much to say, but who wants to leave an Easter post up for so long after Easter's come and gone? Alrighty then.

Previous weight: 139.8
Current weight: 138.4

Tentative pounds to go: 11.4

That's all for now.